The latest news on global warming’s impact may not be as serious as the hurricanes, tsunamis, global floods, droughts, and the spates of dengue fever and malaria commonly associated with the planet’s warming trend. But kidney stones are infamous for sometimes causing pain worse than childbirth.

Currently, about 12 percent of U.S. men and seven percent of women develop kidney stones. The problem is more prevalent in hotter climates; kidney stones occur 50 percent more in the Southeast than in the Northwest, which scientists attribute to the difference in temperature.

The hotter temperatures cause people to sweat more and not drink enough water to refill the fluids they have lost. When urine volume is low, it is more likely “that salt will clump together and form stones,” according to The Houston Chronicle.

The study predicts that the rate of kidney stones could increase about 30 percent in some parts of the United States by 2050, due to global warming.

"The solution to this problem sounds simple, for people to monitor their fluid intake," said Tom Brikowski, the lead author of the study. "I know people will continue to drive their Hummers and just tell others to drink more water. But with global warming it's not going to be any single thing that is a crisis or will destroy society. It's kind of like living in an old house where everything slowly stops working over time. At some point you're living in a crumbling home."

Although the solution is to drink more water, doctors suggest that might not be as easy as it sounds. "You'd think that with fair warning and gradual change, people would adapt, but they don't," said University of Texas urologist Margaret Pearle. "It's the same reason people in the South now have higher rates than the North. They don't adapt."

“On April 9, a senior scientist for the federal Centers for Disease Control told Congress that ‘major human health problems’ are anticipated from climate change, including increased air pollution and the more rapid spread of infectious diseases such as West Nile virus, malaria, dengue fever and Lyme disease,” findingDulcinea reported in April.

A September 2007 ABC News article stated that global warming could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. “The hardening of the heart's arteries is like rust developing on a car, said Dr. Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University. 'Rust develops much more quickly at warm temperatures and so does atherosclerosis.'"

“Passing kidney stones can be excruciating. The pain they cause typically starts in your side or back, just below your ribs, and radiates to your lower abdomen and groin,” according to the Mayo Clinic, which describes the condition, its symptoms, causes, treatments and prevention.

The abstract of the study, entitled “Climate-related increase in the prevalence of urolithiasis in the United States,” is found on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Web site. The full article is available to subscribers and to those who pay a fee.